System and method for planning a radiation therapy treatment

ABSTRACT

A method for planning a radiation therapy treatment of a body represented by a volume of voxels determines a radiation dose matrix representing a spatial distribution of a radiation dose of beams of radiation irradiating the volume with homogeneous stopping power. The beams are collimated and are shifted copies of each other at each depth of the volume, and the spatial distribution is determined by calculating cumulative beam-axial doses in a single matrix-matrix multiplication and redistributing the cumulative beam-axial doses to all voxels in the volume using a convolution. Next, a set of correcting operations is applied to the radiation dose matrix to produce a cumulative voxel radiation dose of the volume. Each correcting operation is linear, independent from another correcting operation and has a transform.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to radiation therapy treatmentplanning, and particularly to determining a radiation dose for theradiation therapy.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Radiation therapy is used to treat malignant tissue, such as cancercells. The radiation can have an electromagnetic form, such ashigh-energy photons, or a particulate form, such as an electron, proton,neutron, or alpha particles.

Fast and accurate dose determination is important for radiation therapytreatment planning to ensure that the correct dose is delivered to aspecific patient. Dose determination generally includes two parts: asource model and a transport model. The source model provides theincident fluence, which is the flux of the radiation integrated overtime. The transport model determines the dose that results from theincident fluence. In conventional treatment planning system thetransport model is a performance bottleneck. The three main transportmethods in an order of increasing accuracy or decreasing performance arepencil beam, superposition and convolution, and Monte Carlo simulation.Superposition and convolution is the most common method for determiningthe radiation dose for external beam radiation therapy.

In particle beam radiation therapy treatment, a tissue volume isirradiated by a large number of directed pencil beams of radiation atvarious depths. Typically, the treatment planning volume, whichrepresents a region within the patient, is partitioned into arectangular 3D grid of voxels. To validate a treatment plan, it isnecessary to determine the irradiation pattern of tens of thousands ofbeams for millions of voxels in the volume. To optimize a dose plan, itis necessary to determine the adjoint of this operation.

The radiation pattern can be modeled as a spatial distribution ofradiation deposited by each beam. The relative intensity of radiationdelivered to the i^(th) voxel by the j^(th) beam is represented by apositive number A^(ij) and the table of numbers for all such beams andvoxels is called a fluence matrix AεR^(V×P), wherein V is a number ofvoxels and P is a number of pencil beams. In present-day treatmentsettings there may be V≧10⁶ voxels and P≈10⁵ pencil beams, resulting ina fluence matrix of 8V P≈10¹² bytes. This is too large to be stored inconventional memories, or used even in most supercomputers. Thus, thedirect determination of the fluence matrix A is currently impractical.

Some dose calculation methods determine a cumulative voxel radiationdose applied during the treatment without explicitly constructing thefluence matrix. Some conventional methods determine the cumulative voxelradiation dose via Monte Carlo simulation or via clinically validatedapproximations. For example, one method calculate the contributions ofthe pencil-beams one at a time, e.g., by ray-tracing 3D dosedistribution each pencil beam, and accumulate the result into a 3D arrayrepresenting the cumulative doses to all voxels, see U.S. Pat. No.8,325,878.

Some state-of-the-art dose optimization techniques use a sparseapproximation of the fluence matrix, in which a subset of fluence valuesabove a predetermined threshold are stored, and the remaining smallfluence values are neglected. However, such a sparse enough matrix thatcan be stored in a computer memory disregards about 1-4% of the totalradiation.

In addition, the conventional methods are not fast enough for a realtime dose calculation. Further, those methods are not suitable todetermine the action of the adjoint A^(T) of the fluence matrix, whichcan be necessary to determine the gradient of the error in various doseoptimization techniques.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Some embodiments of invention are based on a realization that there isno need to directly approximate or accumulate an accurate cumulativevoxel radiation dose suitable for clinical use. Instead, it isadvantageous to efficiently determine an initial approximation of thecumulative voxel radiation dose that is inaccurate and may not besuitable for t clinical use, and then subsequently correct the initialapproximation with a set of independent operations having an adjoint.

The approximation can be decomposed into independent operations to allowefficient calculation using multiple parallel processors. Because thecorrecting operations are also decomposable, the initial approximationcan be subsequently corrected. Because each operation has a transpose,the transpose can be applied to the cumulative voxel radiation dose in areverse order to obtain quantities needed for the dose optimization,such as the gradient of the dose error with respect to beam weights.

It was realized and proved that approximation and the subsequentcorrections are independent, linear operations that can be implementedin parallel and can make extensive use of graphic processor units (GPU).Overall, various embodiments determine can increase the determination ofthe cumulative voxel radiation dose in one or two orders of magnitude.

Accordingly, one embodiment of the invention discloses a method forplanning a radiation therapy treatment of a body represented by a volumeof voxels. The method includes determining a radiation dose matrixrepresenting a spatial distribution of a radiation dose of beams ofradiation irradiating the volume with homogeneous stopping power,wherein the beams are collimated and are shifted copies of each other ateach depth of the volume, wherein the spatial distribution is determinedby calculating cumulative beam-axial doses in a single matrix-matrixmultiplication and redistributing the cumulative beam-axial doses to allvoxels in the volume using a convolution; and applying a set ofcorrecting operations to the radiation dose matrix to produce acumulative voxel radiation dose of the volume, wherein each correctingoperation is linear, independent from another correcting operation andhas a transform. The steps of the method are performed by at least oneprocessor.

Another embodiment discloses a method for planning a radiation therapytreatment of a body represented by a volume of voxels includingdetermining a radiation dose matrix representing a spatial distributionof a radiation dose of a regular 3D grid of beams irradiating the volumewith homogeneous stopping power; and applying a set of correctingoperations to the radiation dose matrix to produce a cumulative voxelradiation dose of the volume. The set of correcting operation includesone or combination of an operation for correcting an assumption ofuniformity of lateral distribution of energy of each collimated beam, anoperation for correcting an assumption of the homogeneous stopping powerof the volume, an operation for correcting an assumption of a paralleldistribution of the collimated beams, an operation for correcting anassumption of a multi-port propagation of the collimated beams, and anoperation for correcting an assumption for a cumulative stopping powerof media between a beam source and the patient, wherein each correctingoperation is linear, independent from another correcting operation andhas a transform. The steps of the method are performed by a parallelprocessor.

Yet another embodiment discloses a radiation therapy system comprising aparallel processor for determining an approximation of a radiation dosematrix representing a spatial distribution of a radiation dose of beamsof radiation irradiating a body represented by a volume of voxels,wherein the spatial distribution is determined by calculating cumulativebeam-axial doses in a single matrix-matrix multiplication andredistributing the cumulative beam-axial doses to all voxels in thevolume using a convolution, and for correcting the approximation using aset of linear correcting operations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a radiation therapy system 100according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic of a principle employed by some embodiments of theinvention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a method for radiation therapy treatmentplanning using beams of radiation irradiating a volume of a patientaccording to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a method for determining an approximationof the spatial distribution of the radiation dose according to oneembodiment;

FIG. 5 is a schematic showing a set of correcting operations used bysome embodiment of the invention to correct inaccuracy of initialapproximation;

FIG. 6 is a schematic of a realization used by one embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic of a method for correcting the assumption of aparallel distribution of the collimated beams according to oneembodiment of the invention; and

FIGS. 8A and 8B are flow charts for an exemplar method for determining acumulative voxel radiation dose for radiation therapy treatment of thevolume of the patient according to one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a radiation therapy system 100according to one embodiment of the invention. The radiation therapysystem 100 includes a radiation treatment planning system 101, whichfurther includes a parallel processor 102. The parallel processor isadapted to receive input information concerning a body 105 having anintended radiation treatment volume that can be represented as a volumeof voxels. The parallel processor 102 is also adapted to generate outputinformation for providing radiation treatment to the intended radiationtreatment volume of the body.

The radiation treatment planning system 101 can further include astorage 107, a display 108, and input/output (I/O) devices andinterfaces 109. The storage 107 may be, for example, a hard disk drive,a CD-ROM drive, a DVD drive, a flash drive, etc. The display 108 may be,for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a cathode ray tube (CRT)monitor, a plasma display, etc. I/O device 109 may include, for example,a mouse, a keyboard, an interface for data transfer over a network or adata bus.

The radiation therapy system 100 can further include a radiationtreatment system 103 that is in communication with the radiationtreatment planning system 101. The radiation treatment system 103 caninclude a radiation source 106 that emits a directed beam of radiationfor treatment. Examples of radiation sources may include, a X-raysource, a gamma ray source, an electron beam source, etc. The radiationsource 106 may further comprise a multi-leaf collimator (MLC) to shapethe beam. By adjusting the position of the leaves of the MLC, aradiotherapist can match the radiation field to a shape of the treatmentvolume of body. Other beam shaping and/or contouring can be included insome embodiments. The radiation source 106 can have a correspondingsource model. The radiation system 103 may be controlled by theradiation treatment planning system 101, for example, to deliverintensity modulated radiation energy and to conform radiation treatmentto the shape of the intended radiation treatment volume.

The radiation therapy system 100 can also include a diagnostic system104, in communication with the radiation treatment planning system 101that generates empirical data of body 105, e.g., a body of a human. Theempirical data may be used as input information to the radiationtreatment planning system 101 and the parallel processor 102 and may beused to determine the dose of radiation. The diagnostic system 104 caninclude sensors to obtain the empirical data of body 105. An examplediagnostic system may be a computed tomography (CT) scanner, a magneticresonance imaging (MRI) scanner, a positron emission tomography (PET)scanner.

Some embodiments of the invention are based on a recognition that forparticle beam dose calculation and optimization, it is necessary torapidly determine cumulative voxel radiation dose using a matrix-vectorproducts Aw and/or A^(T)λ, without explicitly constructing the matrix A,wherein T is the transpose operator, w is a vector of nonnegative beamweights and λ is a vector of errors in the doses of the voxels.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic of a principle employed by some embodiments ofthe invention. In particle beam treatment, a volume 230 of a body of apatient is irradiated 220 by a large number of pencil beams, e.g., thebeams 240-241, that are directed at different points in the patient, andpenetrate to different depths. In a first order approximation, the beamscan be considered as translated copies of each other, and the 3Dirradiation field of each beam can be modeled 240 as a trilinear outerproduct 250 of three vectors. The trilinear outer product can be used torapidly approximate a linear superposition of many parallel beamsdirected at a rectangular grid of targets.

Furthermore, some embodiments determine the trilinear outer product bycalculating cumulative beam-axial doses in a single matrix-matrixmultiplication and redistributing the doses to all voxels in the volumeof the patient in a convolution, as described in more details below.Such calculations further increase the efficiency of the computation.

However, this trilinear outer product ignores several phenomena and istoo inaccurate for clinical use. For example, the beams of radiationaimed at different depths have different radiation profiles. Also, theirradiation pattern of each individual beam depends on the stopping andscattering power of the tissues the beam passes through. Similarly, thebeams usually radiate from a common source 210 and propagation of eachbeam increases nonlinearly.

Some embodiments of the invention apply a sequence of corrections 260 tothe dose approximation to account for all of these phenomena. Each ofthese correction operations has a transpose. By applying the transposesin a reverse order, some embodiments obtain quantities needed for doseoptimization, such as the gradient of the dose error with respect to thebeam weights.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a method for radiation therapy treatmentplanning using beams of radiation irradiating a volume of a patient. Themethod determines a cumulative voxel radiation dose for the volume, andeach step of the method can be implemented by the parallel processor102.

Specifically, the method determines 310 a radiation dose matrixrepresenting a spatial distribution of a radiation dose of a regular 3Dgrid of beams of radiation. The radiation dose matrix is approximated315 based on the assumption that the beams are collimated, andcollimated beams at each depth are shifted copies of each other forradiating the volume of the patient with homogeneous stopping power.Such an assumption allows for rapid determination of the approximationof the radiation dose on the parallel processor.

Next, the method applies 320 a set of correcting operations to theradiation dose matrix to produce a cumulative voxel radiation dose 325of the volume. Each correcting operation is linear, independent fromanother correcting operation, and has a transpose.

Rapid Dose Calculation Using Outer Products

Some embodiments approximate a spatial distribution of a radiation dosebased on assumption that all beams are of a given energy and aregrid-translated copies of a single beam. For each beam, the density ofenergy deposition by the beam (as a function of depth z) is presumed tofollow some energy profile, e.g., a Bragg profile B(z). Also, thedispersion of energy transverse to the beam is assumed to follow somedistribution D(x, y, z), so that the cumulative energy deposited in somevoxel of width Δ centered on a location (x₀, y₀, z₀) isE(x ₀ ,y ₀ ,z ₀,Δ)=∫_(z) ₀ _(−Δ/2) ^(z) ⁰ ^(+Δ/2)∫_(y) ₀ _(−Δ/2) ^(y) ⁰^(+Δ/2)∫_(x) ₀ _(−Δ/2) ^(x) ⁰ ^(+Δ/2) B(z)D(x,y,z)dxdydz.

Further, the 2D lateral distribution of the dose is assumed to beindependent of depth z and separable into two i.i.d. (independently andidentically distributed) 1D distributions, usually Gaussian profiles, sothat D(x, y, z)=N(x)N(y) andE _(sep)(x ₀ ,y ₀ ,z ₀,Δ)=∫_(z) ₀ _(−Δ/2) ^(z) ⁰ ^(+Δ/2)∫_(yz−Δ/2) ^(y)⁰ ^(+Δ/2)∫_(x) ₀ _(−Δ/2) ^(x) ⁰ ^(+Δ/2) B(z)N(x)N(y)dxdydz.

It is assumed that the voxels are small enough that the distributionfunctions are approximately linear within the voxel, so the integral isessentially trilinear, and, thus, can be approximated by either of theseouter products:

${\lim\limits_{\Delta\rightarrow 0}\mspace{14mu}{E_{sep}\left( {x_{0},y_{0},z_{0},\Delta} \right)}} = {\left( {\int_{z_{0} - {\Delta/2}}^{z_{0} + {\Delta/2}}{{B(z)}\ {\mathbb{d}z}}} \right)\left( {\int_{{yz} - {\Delta/2}}^{{y\; 0} + {\Delta/2}}{{N(y)}\ {\mathbb{d}y}}} \right)\left( {\int_{x_{0} - {\Delta/2}}^{x_{0} + {\Delta/2}}{{N(x)}\ {\mathbb{d}x}}} \right)}$  or$\mspace{20mu}{{\lim\limits_{\Delta\rightarrow 0}\mspace{14mu}{E_{sep}\left( {x_{0},y_{0},z_{0},\Delta} \right)}} = {\Delta^{3}{B\left( z_{0} \right)}{N\left( x_{0} \right)}{N\left( y_{0} \right)}}}$

This approximation enables a fast “outer product” procedure to determinethe weighted sum of all beams that includes one small matrix-matrixmultiplication and (hardware-accelerable) 1D or 2D convolution(s).

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a method for determining theapproximation of the spatial distribution of the radiation doseaccording to one embodiment. In that embodiment, the spatialdistribution is determined by calculating cumulative beam-axial doses ina single matrix-matrix multiplication 410 and redistributing the dosesto all voxels in the volume of the patient in a convolution 420.

In particular, in discretizing to computer-representable voxel doses,let N be a column vector containing the values of the lateraldistribution (e.g., a 1D Gaussian density function) and let N be amatrix in which each column is a spatially shifted copy of N, the shiftmatching the lateral spacing between beams. Similarly, let B be a vectorcontaining the values of a Bragg profile and let B be a matrix ofspatially shifted Bragg profiles (or let each column in B contain aunique energy profile for all beams in one energy layer). Then theshared outer product structure of all beams can be summarized by theformula vec (A)=vec (N

N

B), where

is the Kronecker matrix product and where vec (•) vectorizes itsargument.

To use this in a method for dose calculation, one embodiment twice applythe matrix equality vec (UXV)=(V^(T)

U) vec (X), obtainingAw=vec(B ^(T)mat(w)(N

N))where mat (•) reshapes its argument into a matrix that conforms to itsleft and right multiplicands.This enables is a very efficient mechanism to obtain the dose depositionAw by multiplying 430 a vector of beam weights by a matrix of energyprofiles, e.g., as a product B^(T) mat (w). Each value in B^(T) mat (w)is the cumulative radiation deposited into a specific Z plane by allbeams that center on a specific X,Y coordinate. To calculate the dose,one embodiment substitute 440 values in voxels in the volume withcorresponding values of the total radiation, i.e., arrange these valuesat their XYZ coordinates in a 3D array otherwise filled with zeroes, andthen convolves 420 the volume with a 2D (XY) lateral spreading kernel.

If the kernel itself is separable into the outer product of two 1Dkernels (as is the case for Gaussian kernels), then a 2D convolution canbe replaced with two 1D convolutions. For example, the convolvingincludes a first convolution with a first vector in a first lateraldirection, followed by a second convolution with a second vector in asecond lateral direction orthogonal to the first lateral direction,e.g., one convolution is in X direction followed by the convolution in Ydirection. Both the matrix-vector product and the convolutions can benatively parallelized by a graphics processor unit (GPU).

An equivalent method for computing the transpose A^(T)λ begins with theobservation that A^(T)=N^(T)

N^(T)

B^(T), and then proceeds using the same arguments. Because the Kroneckerfactors are reversed, the method for computing the transpose A^(T)λ isalso reversed. For example, one embodiment places values in λ in the 3Dgrid, 2D-convolve the 3D grid and then extract the values along the beamaxes and place those values in a matrix which is multiplied on the leftby B to yield A^(T)λ.

Correcting Operations

The approximation can be decomposed into independent operations to allowefficient calculation using multiple processors. Because the correctingoperations are also decomposable, the initial approximation can besubsequently corrected in parallel with the help of multiple processors.Because each operation has a transpose, the transpose can be applied tothe cumulative voxel radiation dose in reverse order to obtainquantities needed for the dose optimization, such as the gradient of thedose error with respect to the beam weights. However, the trilinearapproximation of the cumulative voxel radiation dose is inaccurate basedon one or combination of the following.

First, the approximation assumes that transverse slices of all beamshave identical, e.g., Gaussian, lateral distributions at all depths. Inpractice, the variance of the lateral distribution increases nonlinearlywith increasing depth in the patient, so that beam has a unique dilationat each depth. Some embodiments of the invention are based on arealization that the inaccuracy of the approximation due to unmodelledlateral variance can be reduced by convolving different depth planes inthe 3D array with different lateral spread kernel(s). Notably, such aconvolution can be performed in parallel using multiple processors andhas an adjoint operation.

Second, the approximation assumes irradiation of the volume with ahomogeneous stopping power, e.g., water. In practice, the tissues in thevolume of the patient are inhomogeneous, i.e., voxels representing boneshave a relatively high radiation stopping power, while voxelsrepresenting air have very little stopping power.

Some embodiments of the invention are based on a realization that theinaccuracy of the approximation due to the variance of the stoppingpower in the volume can be reduced by stretching and contracting thevoxels in the original homogeneous volume along the line of thepropagation of the beam until the length of each voxel is inverselyproportioned to its stopping power. For example, if the approximation ofthe cumulative voxel radiation dose is determined for the volume ofwater, a bone in the volume effectively shortens the beam, while the aireffectively lengthens the beam. With such stretching and contractingoperations, the dose deposition at the usual linear rate delivers thecorrect dose to each voxel.

Because such stretching and contracting is computationally complex andincompatible with the original trilinear approximation, embodimentsbased on this realization account for inhomogeneous tissues by makingcorrections to the cumulative dose deposited in a homogeneous volumebased on a redistribution matrix R that linearly maps irradiation valuesfrom those deposited into regular grid into those that would bedeposited into a stretched grid. Notably, the redistribution matrix canbe predetermined, e.g., based on Hounsfield radiodensity valuesassociated with computer-aided tomography density readings of thepatient. The application of the redistribution matrix can also beperformed in parallel using multiple processors and has an adjointoperation.

Third, the approximation assumes irradiation of the volume with parallelbeams. In practice, the beams can radiate from a common focal point.Some embodiments are based on a recognition that a Euclidean space canbe warped so that all lines parallel to one axis meet at a focal point.Similarly, there is a counter-warp that inverts this warp (except at thefocal point, which is a singularity). Thus, some embodimentscounter-warp the patient geometry and tissue density data. Then, dosedeposition and redistribution proceeds as described above. Then, theplanning volume is warped back to its original geometry. Once again, thewarp and counter-warp are linear operators that can be handled byparallel computing operations or represented by a very sparse matrixthat can be combined (or sequenced) with the rotation and heterogeneoustissue redistribution matrices.

The warp and counter-warp operations change the volume of any subvolumebut do not change the stopping power or cumulative radiation in thatsubvolume. In addition, the counter-warp can also be applied to thebeam-spreading profiles to keep the geometry of the beams consistentwith the geometry of the treatment volume.

Fourth, the volume between the source of radiation and the body of thepatient has to be considered.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic of a set of correcting operations 501 used bysome embodiment of the invention to correct inaccuracy of theapproximation 315. The set of correcting operations 510 includes one orcombination of an operation for correcting an assumption of uniformityof lateral distribution of energy of each collimated beam 505, anoperation for correcting an assumption of the homogeneous stopping powerof the volume 510, an operation for correcting an assumption of aparallel distribution of the collimated beams 520, an operation forcorrecting an assumption of a multi-port propagation of the collimatedbeams 530, and an operation for correcting an assumption for acumulative stopping power of media between a beam nozzle and the patientvolume 540.

Handling Variations in Lateral Beam Spread

The above convolution assumes that transverse slices of all beams haveidentical spreading distributions at all depths. In practice, thevariance of the spreading distribution varies nonlinearly with depth, sothat the beam has a unique dilation at each depth. That cannot beexactly accommodated in the outer product procedure, but it can beapproximated very well, as follows.

Consider all beams with a shared axis (x, y). To sum their effects invoxel layer z, exactly, the sum isΣ_(i) w _(i) B _(i)(z)N((x,y),σ_(i) ²(z)),  (3.1)where w_(i) is the weight on the ith beam, B_(i)(z) is the integral ofthe Bragg profile over the interval spanned by volume layer z, andN((x,y), σ_(i) ²(z)) is a 2D Gaussian field of variance σ_(i) ²(z)centered at (x,y). Calculating and summing all these fields is veryexpensive. In the trilinear outer product procedure described above, allvariances are presumed equal (∀_(i,z)σ_(i) ²(z)=σ²), and the sum isfactored as(Σ_(i) w _(i) B _(i)(z))·N((x,y),σ²).  (3.2)

One embodiment approximates the exact sum (eq. 3.1) with a weightedsuperposition of a small number of differently varianced and re-weightedouter products. I.e., the embodiment uses a small number J of basisfields N((x y),σ_(j) ²(z)), each with a pre-set variance σ_(j) ²(z), j=1. . . J. This embodiment is based on a realization that for each basis,there is a function giving modified weights u_(ij)(w_(i)B_(i)(z),σ_(i)²(z),σ_(j) ²(z)) and, thus, the exact sum can be approximated asΣ_(j) ^(J)(Σ_(i) u _(ij)(w _(i) B _(i)(z),σ_(i) ²(z),σ_(j)²(z)))·N((x,y),σ_(j) ²(z)).  (3.3)

The new weighting function u_(ij)(•) can be obtained by solving a smalland simple linear system of equations, as described below.

In particular, let minimize the weighted squared error of approximatinga single 2D Gaussian field by a weighted sum of 2D Gaussian fields ofdifferent variances. For notational simplicity, assume that the targetfield is centered on the origin (0,0) with variance β², i.e., letminimize

${{{N\left( {\left( {0,0} \right),\beta^{2}} \right)} - {\sum\limits_{j}^{\;}\;{v_{j}{N\left( {\left( {0,0} \right),\sigma_{j}^{2}} \right)}}}}}_{2}^{2}.$

The embodiment determines the approximation to be most accurate near thebeam core, and weights the squared error by another 2D Gaussian fieldN((0,0), α²). The error is thenE=∫∫N((x,y);(0,0),α²)·(N((x,y);(0,0),β²)−Σ_(j) ^(J) v _(j)N((x,y);(0,0),σ_(j) ²))² dxdy.

The error is convex, so to find the optimal weights v_(j), theembodiment solves for the zeros of the partial derivatives ∂_(v) _(j)E=0, obtaining a linear system

$\forall_{j}\left\{ {{\sum\limits_{k}^{J}\;\frac{v_{k}}{{\sigma_{j}^{2}\sigma_{k}^{2}} + {\alpha^{2}\left( {\sigma_{j}^{2} + \sigma_{k}^{2}} \right)}}} = \frac{1}{{\sigma_{j}^{2}\beta^{2}} + {\alpha^{2}\left( {\sigma_{j}^{2} + \beta^{2}} \right)}}} \right\}$where each sum includes k=j.

The vector v of weights is given by the solution

$\begin{matrix}{v = {\quad{\begin{bmatrix}{1/\left( {{\sigma_{1}^{2}\sigma_{1}^{2}} + {\alpha^{2}\left( {\sigma_{1}^{2} + \sigma_{1}^{2}} \right)}} \right)} & \ldots & {1/\left( {{\sigma_{1}^{2}\sigma_{j}^{2}} + {\alpha^{2}\left( {\sigma_{1}^{2} + \sigma_{j}^{2}} \right)}} \right)} \\\vdots & \ddots & \vdots \\{1/\left( {{\sigma_{j}^{2}\sigma_{1}^{2}} + {\alpha^{2}\left( {\sigma_{j}^{2} + \sigma_{1}^{2}} \right)}} \right)} & \ldots & {1/\left( {{\sigma_{j}^{2}\sigma_{j}^{2}} + {\alpha^{2}\left( {\sigma_{j}^{2} + \sigma_{j}^{2}} \right)}} \right)}\end{bmatrix}^{- 1}\mspace{509mu}\left\lbrack \begin{matrix}{1/\left( {{\sigma_{1}^{2}\beta^{2}} + {\alpha^{2}\left( {\sigma_{1}^{2} + \beta^{2}} \right)}} \right)} \\\vdots \\{1/\left( {{\sigma_{j}^{2}\beta^{2}} + {\alpha^{2}\left( {\sigma_{j}^{2} + \beta^{2}} \right)}} \right)}\end{matrix} \right\rbrack}}} & (3.4)\end{matrix}$

If a uniform error weighting is desired, than α→∞ and the linear systemsimplifies to

$\forall_{j}{\left\{ {{\sum\limits_{k}^{j}\;\frac{v_{k}}{\sigma_{j}^{2} + \sigma_{k}^{2}}} = \frac{1}{\sigma_{j}^{2} + \beta^{2}}} \right\}.}$

Thus, the vector v of weights is given by the solution

$\begin{matrix}{v = {\begin{bmatrix}{1/\left( {\sigma_{1}^{2} + \sigma_{1}^{2}} \right)} & \ldots & {1/\left( {\sigma_{1}^{2} + \sigma_{j}^{2}} \right)} \\\vdots & \ddots & \vdots \\{1/\left( {\sigma_{j}^{2} + \sigma_{1}^{2}} \right)} & \ldots & {1/\left( {\sigma_{j}^{2} + \sigma_{j}^{2}} \right)}\end{bmatrix}^{- 1}\begin{bmatrix}{1/\left( {\sigma_{1}^{2} + \beta^{2}} \right)} \\\ldots \\{1/\left( {\sigma_{j}^{2} + \beta^{2}} \right)}\end{bmatrix}}} & (3.5)\end{matrix}$

It is possible that some v_(ij) are negative; this does not affect theaccuracy of the approximation but it can lead to so nonphysical results.If that is not desired, the linear system can be replaced with thequadratic program

$\min\limits_{\forall_{k}{v_{k} \geq 0}}{\sum\limits_{k}^{\;}\;{\left\{ {\left( {\sum\limits_{k}^{j}\;\frac{v_{k}}{{\sigma_{j}^{2}\sigma_{k}^{2}} + {\alpha^{2}\left( {\sigma_{j}^{2} + \sigma_{k}^{2}} \right)}}} \right) - \frac{1}{{\sigma_{j}^{2}\beta^{2}} + {\alpha^{2}\left( {\sigma_{j}^{2} + \beta^{2}} \right)}}} \right\}^{2}.}}$

In the larger dose calculation problem, the identification is β²=σ_(j)²(z), which licenses the factorization u_(ij)(w_(i)B_(i)(z),σ_(i)²(z),σ_(j) ²(z))=v_(ij)(σ_(i) ²(z),σ_(j) ²(z))·w_(i)B_(i)(z), becausenow v_(ij) only depends on the original variance σ_(i) ²(z) and thebasis set of approximating variances {σ_(j) ²(z)}_(j) ^(J) throughequation (3.4). Writing out this dependence explicitly, the desireddilation-modeling superposition (eq. 3.3) becomesΣ_(j) ^(J){(Σ_(i) v _(ij)(σ_(i) ²(z),σ_(j) ²(z))·w _(i) B_(i)(z))·N((x,y),σ_(j) ²(z)),},where each term in braces can be determined by the original outerproduct procedure. The approximation weights v_(ij) can bepre-calculated (for every beam and z layer) and re-used for differentbeam weights w_(i).

In one variation of the embodiment, where all the beams in one energylayer have the same dilation profile, the approximation weights dependonly on the depth and the superposition further simplifies to a formthat is close to the original trilinear approximation in eqn. 3.2,indicating that dilation across all beams can be modeled by summing asmall number of trilinear approximations, each with different transversespreads:Σ_(j) ^(J)(Σ_(i) w _(i) v _(j)(z)B _(i)(z))·N((x,y),σ_(j) ²).  (3.6)

Note that the dilation weights and the Bragg values can be premultipliedbefore any dose calculations yielding {hacek over (B)}_(i)(z){dot over(=)}v_(j)(z)B_(i)(z), so that, procedurally, the embodiment only needsto sum over a few iterations of the original trilinear form:Σ_(j) ^(J)(Σ_(i) w _(i) {hacek over (B)} _(i)(z))·N((x,y),σ_(j)²).  (3.7)

Numerical experiments indicate that J=4 fixed-variance Gaussian fieldscan be sufficient to give a high-quality approximation for all thetransverse spreads encountered in typical dose optimization problems.For example, a weighted sum of 20 Gaussian fields with variances drawnrandomly from the interval σ_(i)(z)ε[3,6] mm can be approximated using abasis set of 4 Gaussian fields with fixed variances such that themaximum absolute error is less than 1/1000th of the exact peak value.The approximation can be made tighter by using more fields in the basis,or faster by using less. Notably, this correction operation uses alinear operator, i.e., its transpose is also available for doseoptimization.

Dose Redistribution

In inhomogeneous tissues, voxels representing bone have a relativelyhigh radiation stopping power, while voxels representing air have verylittle stopping power. To a first order, this can be modeled bystretching and contracting the voxels along the beam until they areinversely proportioned to their stopping power. Then, the dosedeposition at the usual linear rate determines the correct dose for eachvoxel. Bone effectively shortens the beam; air effectively lengthens thebeam. This “dose-volume equivalent” approximation usually requiresserial ray-tracing of each beam progressing through the volume. The raytracing can be accelerated using GPUs and reverse ray tracingtechniques, but another two orders of magnitude speed-up is needed forreal-time dose optimization. Furthermore, ray-tracing methods do notlend themselves to the gradient computation needed for doseoptimization.

FIG. 6 shows an illustration of a realization used by one embodiment ofthe invention. Specifically, instead of accounting for tissueinhomogeneity in the course of depositing the dose, it can beadvantageous to account for such an inhomogeneity by making correctionsto the dose after the dose has been deposited in a homogeneous volume.For example, in water-equivalent dosing 610, denser voxels are stretchedto yield an irregular grid on which then radiation dosage is calculated.In redistribution dosing 612 employed by the embodiment, the radiationdosage is calculated on a regular grid and then redistributed to matchthe dosage pattern of the stretched voxels.

To model the effect of tissue inhomogeneity on radiation deposition, oneembodiment uses a perturbational procedure that is amenable to massivelyparallel computation. The embodiment precalculates a redistributionmatrix R that linearly maps irradiation values from those deposited intoregular grid into those that would be deposited into a stretched grid.This redistribution matrix corrects a dose deposited in a column ofwater to match the dose that would be deposited by ray-tracing through acolumn of inhomogeneous tissue. The (nonzero) values of R can bederived, e.g., from the Hounsfield radiodensity values associated withcomputer-aided tomography density readings. FIG. 0 illustrates.

Because the dose deposition A and redistribution R are linear and can becombined to give the correct heterogeneous-tissue dose RAw. Note thatthe redistribution is many-to-many, i.e., the irradiation values fromseveral contiguous voxels in the initial dose calculation Aw grid may belinearly combined to obtain the total radiation absorbed by single voxelof bone or very dense tissue the heterogeneity-corrected dose RAw.Similarly, irradiation in a single voxel in Aw can be distributed tomany low-density voxels in RAw.

Notably, the redistribution matrix R is sparse and highly compressible,i.e., for each voxel v_(i) in RAw, one embodiment determines theshallowest and deepest voxels contributing voxels in Aw and thefractions of their irradiations contributed to v_(i). Consequently, inone embodiment, the redistribution matrix R can be represented with onlyfour nonzero values per row providing an efficient storage and use bythe GPU. For other kinds of radiation sources, the redistribution matrixmay not be as sparse. In those cases, some embodiments express theredistribution as a piecewise linear function, such that thetexture-mapping functions of the GPU can be utilized.

Diverging Beams

The mathematically idealized dose calculation assumes that all beams areparallel; in reality, all beams radiate from a common focal point. Tohandle this, some embodiments based on a recognition that a Euclideanspace can always be warped so that all lines parallel to one axis meetat the focal point. Similarly, there is a counter-warp that inverts thiswarp (except at the focal point, which is a singularity).

FIG. 7 shows a schematic of a method for correcting the assumption of aparallel distribution of the collimated beams according to oneembodiment of the invention. Specifically, the embodiment counter-warp710 the patient geometry 720 and tissue density data. Then dosedeposition and redistribution proceeds as above. The counter-warpingtransforms 730 the diverging beam 740 into the parallel beams 750 usedto determine the approximation 315.

The counter-warping is reversed after the radiation dose is determinedand the planning volume is warped back to its original geometry. In someembodiments, the warp and counter-warp operation change the volume ofany subvolume of the volume but do not change the stopping power orcumulative radiation in that volume. In addition, the counter-warp canalso be applied to the beam-spreading profiles to keep the geometry ofthe beams consistent with the geometry of the volume. Again, the warpand counter-warp are linear operators that can be handled by native GPUoperations or represented by a very sparse matrix that can be combined(or sequenced) with the rotation and heterogeneous tissue redistributionmatrices.

Rotated Beams and Multiport

The same technique can be used to calculate the dose from beams that arenot aligned with the Z-axis of the treatment planning volume, as is thecase for multiport planning. Consider a two-port case, where the beamsfrom the first port travel parallel to the Z axis of the treatmentplanning volume, and the beams of the second port travel along someother axis specified by a set of rotations, for example Euler angles(azimuth, elevation, twist). In this case, some embodiments predeterminea rotation matrix that redistributes the dose in each voxel of theoriginal axis-aligned volume to the appropriate voxels in acounter-rotated volume. For example, one embodiment overlies theoriginal volume and the counter-rotated volume, such that for each voxelin the original volume, its fraction is overlap with each voxel in thecounter-rotated volume. This approach produces another sparse matrix Pwith a small number of non-zeros per row that is easily handled by theGPU. In fact, this is exactly how GPUs do rotation in volumevisualization. Because rotation is linear, the rotation can be combinedwith the redistribution operator for heterogeneous tissue.

For multiport optimizations, an independent rotation P_(k),redistribution R_(k), beam basis A_(k), and set of beam weights w_(k)are associated with each port, yielding a cumulative all-ports dose ofΣ_(k) P_(k)R_(k)A_(k)w_(k). However, the Lagrange multipliers are sharedbetween all ports, because all ports cooperate to satisfy theconstraints.

Beam Absorption in Front of the Treatment Planning Volume (TPV)

The planning volume can represent the interior of the patient, but thebeams are attenuated by the air, skin, tissues, and other media that liebetween the planning volume and the beam source. The effect of thesemedia on the beams can be modeled in dose optimization through the doseredistribution matrix R. For example, one embodiment adds a speciallayer of voxels between the TPV and the beam nozzle. The dose-volumeequivalent stopping power of each voxel in this layer is set to thecumulative dose-volume stopping equivalent of all the media on the linebetween that voxel and the nozzle. Then the R matrix is formed asbefore. If there are no constraints on these special voxels, thecorresponding rows of the R matrix can be dropped in the optimization.

Example

FIGS. 8A and 8B show a flow chart of an exemplar method for determininga cumulative voxel radiation dose for radiation therapy treatment of thevolume of the patient. The method tests 805 if the data representingdensity of the volume of the patient needs to be rotated. For example,if the radiation treatment system 103 includes multiple source of power,the data is counter-rotated 810. Similarly, if the pencil beams ofradiation are diverging 815, the density data are counter-wrapped 820 asdescribed above.

The radiation deposited at each depth by each set of coaxial beams isdetermined 825 by multiplying the beam profile matrix by a matrix ofbeam weights. These deposition values are seeded 830 into the voxelsalong each beam line in the 3D voxel array. The rest of the 3D voxelarray is zeroed 835 and the axial deposition values are spreadthroughout the volume 840 via planar convolutions with the lateralspread kernels. If the beams are known to dilate 850, steps 825-840 arerepeated with slightly different beam profile matrices 855 and theresults are linearly combined 860 to finely approximate the trueradiation deposition pattern. If the density of the patient is known865, e.g., through a CT scan, then the deposited values areredistributed up and down the 3D volume 870 to model the varied stoppingpower of heterogeneous tissue. Finally, any compensation for divergingbeams 875 is inverted 880 and similarly any compensation for patientrotation 885 is inverted 890 to restore the patient volume to itsoriginal geometry.

The above-described embodiments of the present invention can beimplemented in any of numerous ways. For example, the embodiments may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof. Whenimplemented in software, the software code can be executed on anysuitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in asingle computer or distributed among multiple computers. Such processorsmay be implemented as integrated circuits, with one or more processorsin an integrated circuit component. Though, a processor may beimplemented using circuitry in any suitable format. The processor can beconnected to memory, transceiver, and input/output interfaces as knownin the art.

Also, the various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded assoftware that is executable on one or more processors that employ anyone of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Alternatively oradditionally, the invention may be embodied as a computer readablemedium other than a computer-readable storage medium, such as signals.

The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense torefer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executableinstructions that can be employed to program a computer or otherprocessor to implement various aspects of the present invention asdiscussed above.

Use of ordinal terms such as “first,” “second,” in the claims to modifya claim element does not by itself connote any priority, precedence, ororder of one claim element over another or the temporal order in whichacts of a method are performed, but are used merely as labels todistinguish one claim element having a certain name from another elementhaving a same name (but for use of the ordinal term) to distinguish theclaim elements.

Although the invention has been described with reference to certainpreferred embodiments, it is to be understood that various otheradaptations and modifications can be made within the spirit and scope ofthe invention. Therefore, it is the object of the append claims to coverall such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit andscope of the invention.

I claim:
 1. A method for planning a radiation therapy treatment of abody represented by a volume of voxels, comprising: determining aradiation dose matrix representing a spatial distribution of a radiationdose of beams of radiation irradiating the volume with homogeneousstopping power, wherein the beams are collimated and are shifted copiesof each other at each depth of the volume, wherein the spatialdistribution is determined by calculating cumulative beam-axial doses ina single matrix-matrix multiplication and redistributing the cumulativebeam-axial doses to all voxels in the volume using a convolution; andapplying a set of correcting operations to the radiation dose matrix toproduce a cumulative voxel radiation dose of the volume, wherein eachcorrecting operation is linear, independent from another correctingoperation and has a transform, wherein steps of the method are performedby at least one processor.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thedetermining comprises: multiplying a vector representing weights of thebeams by a matrix representing energy profiles of the beams to estimatevalues of a total radiation at each depth of each beam; substitutingvalues in an zeroed 3D array representing the voxels in the volume withcorresponding values of the total radiation; and convolving each depthplane in the volume with a spreading kernel.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the determining comprises: determining the radiation dose matrixas a matrix-vector products Aw of a fluence matrix A representingrelative intensity of radiation delivered to each voxel in the volume byeach beam and a vector of nonnegative beam weights w representing timeof radiation of each beam of radiation according toAw=vec(B ^(T)mat(w)(N

N)), wherein N be a matrix in which each column is a spatially shiftedcopy of values of lateral distribution, B is a matrix of spatiallyshifted energy profiles, such that each column in the matrix B includesan energy profile for the beams in the same depth, wherein

is a Kronecker product of matrices, a function vec(•) vectorizes itsargument, and a function mat(•) reshapes its argument into a matrix thatconforms with its left and right multiplicands, and wherein T is atranspose operator.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set ofcorrecting operations includes an operation for correcting a uniformityof a lateral distribution of energy of each beam at each depth,comprising: convolving each row of the radiation dose matrix todetermine the multiplication (N

N), wherein the convolving includes a first convolution with a firstvector in a first lateral direction, followed by a second convolutionwith a second vector in a second lateral direction orthogonal to thefirst lateral direction.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein theconvolving is according to${\sum\limits_{j}^{J}\;{\left( {\sum\limits_{i}^{\;}\;{w_{i}{v_{j}(z)}{B_{i}(z)}}} \right) \cdot {N\left( {\left( {x,y} \right),\sigma_{j}^{2}} \right)}}},$wherein w_(i) is the weight on the ith beam, B_(i)(z) is an integral ofan energy profile at a depth z, and N((x, y),σ² _(i)(z)) is a 2DGaussian field of variance σ² _(i)(z) centered at an axis (x, y), anv_(j) is a spreading kernel in a set J predetermined for the depth z. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the set of correcting operations includesan operation for correcting an assumption of the homogeneous stoppingpower, further comprising: stretching each voxel in proportion to thestopping power of corresponding tissue of the volume to produce astretched grid; determining a redistribution matrix R that linearly mapsirradiation values deposited into a regular grid to values depositedinto the stretched grid; and multiplying the redistribution matrix Rwith the radiation dose matrix.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein theset of correcting operations includes an operation for correcting anassumption of a parallel distribution of the collimated beams, furthercomprising: counter-warping a Euclidean space of tissue density data ofthe volume before determining the radiation dose; and reversing thecounter-warping after determining the radiation dose.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the set of correcting operations includes an operationfor correcting multi-port propagation of the beams of radiation using arotation of the volume with respect to, further comprising:counter-rotating the volume to align a grid of the volume with a port toproduce a counter-rotated volume; determining a rotation matrix toredistribute the radiation dose in each voxel of the volume tocorresponding voxels in the counter-rotated volume; and summing theradiation dose of the corresponding voxels of the volume and thecounter-rotated volume.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:adding to the volume a proximal layer of voxels with a stopping powerequivalent to a cumulative stopping power of media between a source ofthe beams and the body.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:performing transform operations to the cumulative voxel radiation doseof the volume in an order reversed from an order of operationsdetermining the cumulative voxel radiation dose.
 11. A method forplanning a radiation therapy treatment of a body represented by a volumeof voxels, comprising: determining a radiation dose matrix representinga spatial distribution of a radiation dose of a regular 3D grid of beamsirradiating the volume with homogeneous stopping power; and applying aset of correcting operations to the radiation dose matrix to produce acumulative voxel radiation dose of the volume, wherein the set ofcorrecting operation includes one or combination of an operation forcorrecting an assumption of uniformity of lateral distribution of energyof each collimated beam, an operation for correcting an assumption ofthe homogeneous stopping power of the volume, an operation forcorrecting an assumption of a parallel distribution of the collimatedbeams, an operation for correcting an assumption of a multi-portpropagation of the collimated beams, and an operation for correcting anassumption for a cumulative stopping power of media between a beamsource and the patient, wherein each correcting operation is linear,independent from another correcting operation and has a transform, andwherein steps of the method are performed by a parallel processor.
 12. Aradiation therapy system comprising a parallel processor for determiningan approximation of a radiation dose matrix representing a spatialdistribution of a radiation dose of beams of radiation irradiating abody represented by a volume of voxels, wherein the spatial distributionis determined by calculating cumulative beam-axial doses in a singlematrix-matrix multiplication and redistributing the cumulativebeam-axial doses to all voxels in the volume using a convolution, andfor correcting the approximation using a set of linear correctingoperations.